Ellen Allard & The Wow Worship Musical Experience

Bring This Program To Your Community

Ellen Allard has one consistent motive – to use music to infuse a love of Judaism “into the bones” of those who participate in her Wow Worship service. In a world where extraordinary sensory influences continually distract children and adults, Ellen has crafted a contemporary full sensory musical “Wow Worship” service that is innovative, inventive, and dynamic while still paying homage to an ancient framework of Jewish ritual and worship.

Over the many years of working with families and children in worship settings, Ellen has composed a large repertoire of accessible, easy-to-sing, easily learned songs that have become THE most widely used family-friendly songs used today in synagogues across North America. Building upon rubrics familiar and long-established, each song is designed to deliver a rich experience that speaks directly to the spiritual wealth inherent in the ancient wisdom of Jewish tradition.

Music is the key component of Wow Worship. Blending familiar and new melodies, Ellen invites everyone present to be fully engaged in the sounds, the movements, and the emotions that Wow Worship evokes. With song, laughter, dance, with memories of those who came before and moments of silence, with praises sung to God and blessings offered one to the other, Wow Worship instills a love, appreciation and understanding of Judaism into the hearts, minds, and souls of all those assembled.

Each rubric of the service is carefully considered and choreographed, from the opening strains of the wordless niggun that quietly transitions from the mundane to the holy, to the last note of the final song. Wow Worship is designed to provide an authentic, visceral experience for all who come together as a community to celebrate Shabbat.

Wow Worship can take place either Erev Shabbat, Shabbat morning, or during your religious school Tefillah.

A: Ellen began studying with her own private teacher, Rabbi David Kline, a retired rabbi who is a bible scholar and lover of all things Hebrew. During her first year of study with Rabbi Kline, they studied the Shabbat liturgy. This helped Ellen realize her profoundly deep connection to the prayers she had spoken since she was a child. With this new-found sense of “wow” that she felt, Ellen decided to create a unique way to engage older kids so that they would be wowed as well. Turns out that the adults who attend feel the wow too!

A: The approach that Ellen uses in presenting the Wow Worship Experience is similar stylistically to her Tot Shabbat Experience in that it includes a lot of music and movement and stories. Her primary goal is to give the kids and/or adults an interactive, full body experience of Shabbat. By crafting a service that speaks to the hearts and minds of young children through adult, she offers a service that everyone can relate to. One of the primary differences lies in the choice of songs that Ellen shares in these two different services.

A: Ellen welcomes clergy involvement and believes it is a good anchoring part of the service if the rabbi and/or cantor is involved. Usually, the clergy leads the Kiddush and the Motzi, the Kaddish, and any special ceremonies like baby namings or anniversaries. During the planning sessions, Ellen and the clergy can discuss the role that everyone will play. Ellen also is thrilled and honored to sing with the cantor during part of the service.

A: Ellen has a strong background teaching music and leading award-winning youth choirs. She loves to invite the kids up to the bima to participate and sing with her. It works well to have the music teacher or cantor prepare the kids in advance of Ellen’s visit. This creates excitement and gives the kids ownership in the service. They can then be invited up to the bima and each grade (or the children’s choir) can share “their” song.